Gap Between Region’s Haves and Have-Nots

All the options mentioned in your Nov. 30 editorial about the United Way’s report, “A Tale of Two Cities: Promise and Peril in Los Angeles County” -- literacy education, affordable housing, child care -- shouldn’t depend on government or public intervention. This should be about encouraging individuals to plan for their futures responsibly.

The overwhelming reason for persistent poverty among the able-bodied isn’t bad luck so much as bad lifestyle choices -- choices that had predictable outcomes. Dropping out of school before learning marketable skills and discipline is usually the first bad step. Add to that premature parenthood and family size beyond personal means. This has sometimes gone on through two or three generations of families. That is to say nothing about addiction. Then there’s the nonskilled immigrant population. They come with needs to this overburdened city, spreading the available resources very, very thin -- with no end in sight.

I am being involuntarily robbed of my hard-earned money through high taxes. Can the poor make the same claim? Do the poor provide jobs, as the rich do?

Regan DuCasse

North Hollywood

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Had The Times told the truth about illegal immigration and not subverted every attempt at stopping it, Los Angeles would be a great city, not one perched on the brink of collapse.

Glenn Spencer

Voice of Citizens Together

Sherman Oaks